Zukunft Ruhr 2030

Zusammenfassung  Regionale Entwicklungsstrategien werden in der Regel ohne substanzielle Beteiligung der Wirtschaft entwickelt. Das war im Projekt „Zukunft Ruhr 2030“ anders. Hier hat der „Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet“, die Vereinigung gro?er Unternehmen in der Metropolregion Ruhr, Entwicklungsperspektiven für die Region aus Sicht der Wirtschaft entworfen. Sechs führende Unternehmensberatungen haben in Zusammenarbeit mit Experten aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft verschiedene Themenfelder untersucht, eine Vision entwickelt und daraus eine Entwicklungsstrategie für die kommenden Jahre abgeleitet.     

Der „Mitteleuropäische Kristall“ – zwischen „Blauer Banane“ und „osteuropäischem Pentagon“

Der deutsch-tschechische Grenzraum liegt gewisserma?en in einer Sandwich-Position zwischen verschiedenen europ?ischen Makroregionen; auf europ?ischer Ebene wird er bislang eher als Verbindungselement wahrgenommen. Seine innere Struktur ist von einer relativ geringen Besiedlungsdichte und ausgepr?gten Stadt-Land-Unterschieden gekennzeichnet. Im Frühjahr 2006 gründeten die beiden nationalen Regierungen eine deutsch-tschechische Arbeitsgruppe für Raumentwicklung. Der Artikel skizziert, welche Ziele und Erwartungen damit verbunden werden und welche Funktionen ein solches Gremium übernehmen kann. Dazu wird zun?chst die Ausgangssituation dieses Raumes skizziert. Abschlie?end wird das m?gliche Leitbild des „Mitteleurop?ischen Kristalls“ vorgestellt.     

Political Knowledge and its Partisan Consequences

The study of political knowledge is an established field of research in the United States, although there is a dearth of such research in Australia. Knowledge of political facts and issues is important for making informed political choices. Age, gender, educational attainment and occupational status all distinguish knowledge of politics in Australia, although their impact varies across domestic and international political issues. Political knowledge also influences political behaviour. At the 2004 federal election, politically knowledgeable Australians were more likely to vote for the Greens than the Coalition in the House of Representatives, and more likely to vote for the Greens than for the major parties in the Senate. Political knowledge also increases the likelihood of voting strategically, particularly for the Labor Party in the House of Representatives and Greens in the Senate.     

Early Medieval Trade on Japan’s Southern Frontier and its Effect on Okinawan State Development: Grey Stoneware of the East China Sea

In this paper I examine the development of a particular kind of grey stoneware called kamuiyaki which was produced and traded within the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan, in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. The wares themselves, their chronology, and archaeological context are discussed. The kilns represent the first enterprise in the islands in which a commodity was made for exchange on a substantial scale. The establishment of the kilns in a remote area, with technological borrowing from both Japan and Korea, reflects social and economic trends of the beginning of the Medieval Period in Japan. Greyware production, circulation, and consumption, reconstructed from recent excavations, shows a political economy capable of fostering the development of small states on the island of Okinawa in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.     

Ethnoarchaeology: A Non Historical Science of Reference Necessary for Interpreting the Past

Ethnoarchaeology appears nowadays as a poorly formulated field. However, it could become a real science of reference for interpreting the past if it was focused upon well-founded cross-cultural correlates, linking material culture with static and dynamic phenomena. For this purpose, such correlates have to be studied in terms of explanatory mechanisms. Cross-cultural correlates correspond to those regularities where explanatory mechanisms invoke universals. These universals can be studied by reference to the theories found in the different disciplines they relate to and which are situated outside of the domain of archaeology. In the domain of technology, cross-cultural correlates cover a wide range of static and dynamic phenomena. They allow the archaeologist to interpret archaeological facts—for which there is not necessarily analogue—in terms of local historical scenario as well as cultural evolution. In this respect, it is shown that ethnoarchaeology, when following appropriate methodologies and focussing on the universals that underlie the diversity of archaeological facts, does provide the reference data needed to climb up in the pyramid of inferences that make up our interpretative constructs.     

The Art of Taphonomy and the Taphonomy of Art: Layer IV,Molodova I,Ukraine

Level IV of Molodova I, an open-air Middle Paleolithic site in the Ukraine has been described by some researchers as a possible source of evidence for early symbolic behavior. We examined bone objects from this layer that were identified by Ukrainian researchers as exhibiting possible Neandertal produced engravings including two anthropomorphic figures. While we have determined that there is no evidence of symbolic activity at Molodova I, the database we have created, with its systematic recording of traces left by taphonomic agents on faunal remains, provides a better understanding of the overall site taphonomy.     

THE URBAN–RURAL GAP IN UNIVERSITY ATTENDANCE: DETERMINANTS OF UNIVERSITY PARTICIPATION AMONG CANADIAN YOUTH

Based on existing work, there are clear differences in the incidence of degree holders across the urban–rural hierarchy in favor of large urban areas. In large part, this gradient can be traced to the higher probability of obtaining a degree among residents of larger urban centers. Utilizing data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), this paper explores factors that may account for university participation among Canadian youth. It asks whether this difference is due to local access to universities, family characteristics (e.g., parental income, education, and immigrant status), and local labor market characteristics that may increase the incentive for urban youth to attend university.     

SPID: A New Database for Inferring Public Policy Innovativeness and Diffusion Networks

Despite its rich tradition, there are key limitations to researchers' ability to make generalizable inferences about state policy innovation and diffusion. This paper introduces new data and methods to move from empirical analyses of single policies to the analysis of comprehensive populations of policies and rigorously inferred diffusion networks. We have gathered policy adoption data appropriate for estimating policy innovativeness and tracing diffusion ties in a targeted manner (e.g., by policy domain, time period, or policy type) and extended the development of methods necessary to accurately and efficiently infer those ties. Our state policy innovation and diffusion (SPID) database includes 728 different policies coded by topic area. We provide an overview of this new dataset and illustrate two key uses: (i) static and dynamic innovativeness measures and (ii) latent diffusion networks that capture common pathways of diffusion between states across policies. The scope of the data allows us to compare patterns in both across policy topic areas. We conclude that these new resources will enable researchers to empirically investigate classes of questions that were difficult or impossible to study previously, but whose roots go back to the origins of the political science policy innovation and diffusion literature.